Welding and its counterpart, cutting, have been well known for years. Welding is the process of taking two pieces of metal and joining them together whereas cutting is having one piece of metal and dividing it into two or more pieces.
The traditional method of cutting involves oxygen/acetylene torches. The cutting torch operator would set the oxygen level to 40 to 60 pounds per square inch and the acetylene setting would be regulated to 8 to 15 pounds per square inch. The operator would use the cutting torch to heat the metal in a local area until it became molten and then would apply additional oxygen heating up the metal even more to reduce viscosity and blow the molten metal out the other side of the metal plate. The cutting head of the torch was generally perpendicular to the item being cut. The operator would slowly move the cutting tip down the proposed cutting line. The process of cutting steel is a very slow and tedious process. Metal workers in shipyards across the country spend countless hours cutting steel from damaged or outdated ships so that they may be refit with new and operational equipment.
As such, a need currently exists for an improved method of cutting metal. The method must be cost efficient and safe as well.